


The One Good Thing About Retail At Christmas

by astralpenguin



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Alby Ships It, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Maze (Maze Runner), Background Ben/Gally, Christmas Eve, Clothing Store Owner Newt, Everybody Ships It, Fashion Disaster Thomas, Fluff, M/M, Minho Ships It, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:45:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21806080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astralpenguin/pseuds/astralpenguin
Summary: Newt runs a high end clothing store, and in the run up to Christmas a very attractive man keeps buying outfits and returning them the next day. Newt doesn't mind this as much as he shouldThomas needs to get an outfit together for his sister's wedding on Christmas Eve, but has no idea how to dress himself smartly. And he's in no hurry to figure it out, because if he does then he won't get to keep talking to the cute shop assistant who's been helping him
Relationships: Newt/Thomas (Maze Runner)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 134
Collections: Maze Runner Secret Santa 2019





	The One Good Thing About Retail At Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KathSilver](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KathSilver/gifts).



> happy christmas kath !!!!!!!!
> 
> prompt: _Newtmas.There’s a bloke who keeps coming into his store, buying an item and then returning it the next day, over and over again. Newt thinks he’s running a scam, in reality Thomas has no idea how to dress himself and has been tasked by his sister to “bring home 1 complete outfit where you don’t look like you’re homeless for my wedding on Christmas Eve”. Newt runs an upscale clothing store._

**Tuesday 10th December 2019**

Newt had mixed feelings about the holiday season.

On the one hand, it was great for business. Newt ran a high end clothing store, and in the early winter months sales picked up considerably. A lot of people needed to either get themselves new, nice clothes for events, or were picking out gifts for other people. 

The downside was that, in order for sales to pick up like that, more people had to visit the store itself.

Many people were nice! Some people knew what they wanted, some people had no clue, but the vast majority were polite and kind to those who were helping them. Everyone was stressed at this time of year. Newt was thankful that many of their customers seemed to recognise that taking it out on others wasn’t an acceptable thing to do.

Alas, it was retail. The wankers were unavoidable.

But it was a good day. Newt was standing near the men’s shoes, and no customers had asked him for his help in nearly an hour. Across the store he could see Minho sitting at the checkout, flashing a winning smile at the young woman who was approaching. A few meters away, Alby was leading a middle-aged man in the direction of the suit jackets. It looked like he was chatting to the man as we did so, but he was too far away for Newt to hear. Plus Newt was enjoying the soft, atmospheric winter themed music that was playing.

Songs that were explicitly about Christmas were banned. Newt wasn’t a grinch, but there was already enough of that literally everywhere else and that was only so much that Newt and his friends could take.

“Uh, excuse me?”

Newt turned, forming a smile as he did so.

The man who’d got his attention was slightly shorter than him. His brown hair was a mess, and his hoodie and jeans looked well-worn. The man looked very out of place among the store’s regular clientele, who usually didn’t have even a hair out of place no matter how frazzled they were feeling. But Newt didn’t personally think that there was anything wrong with the way the man had dressed himself. He looked comfortable, both physically in that his clothes looked to be physically comfortable, and mentally in that Newt could tell that this sort of outfit was what the man was used to wearing.

Newt was also of the opinion that anybody with a face like this man’s could honestly get away with wearing anything. He was gorgeous!

“How can I help you?” asked Newt.

The man smiled nervously. “I need a nice outfit to wear and I have no idea where to start.”

“That’s not a problem,” said Newt. “What kind of outfit were you thinking of?”

The man shrugged. “That’s the issue, I don’t know.”

Newt could relate to that. All through secondary school back in England, he’d been That Kid who would keep the shirt of his school uniform on all day, only switching the trousers for jeans after school. T-shirts were for weekends. Events had always been a struggle.

He briefly imagined how his friend Teresa would react if he showed up to her wedding in just jeans and a t-shirt. He suppressed a wince. That would be messy.

“Okay,” said Newt. “What kind of things do you usually like to wear? We can start from there.”

“Well, um,” the man gestured to himself, “this is kinda it?”

Newt nodded. “Gotcha. How about a nicer pair of jeans, and maybe a button down?”

The man nodded eagerly. Newt couldn’t help but find it adorable.

“It’s just this way, if you’d like to follow me.”

Newt walked towards the jeans, checking behind himself once to make sure that the man was following him.

“What’s your budget?” he asked.

“I’ve been given $400,” said the man. “Ideally the whole outfit will come to under that.”

“Been given?” Newt chuckled. “Under orders, are you?”

“Yeah,” said the man, a small breath of laughter escaping his mouth. “Specifically, she said that she needs me to bring home a complete outfit where I don’t look homeless.”

Newt stopped in front of the jeans and turned back to face the man. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think you look homeless at the moment.”

“See, that’s what I said to her!” The man grinned. “Then she locked me out.”

“Oh dear,” said Newt. “How long have you been trapped outside?”

“Not long,” said the man. “I came straight here. Well, I looked in a few other stores first, but got overwhelmed.”

Newt nodded. “This place is a lot calmer than a lot of the other stores around here, yes.”

“I think it’s the music. You’ve taken mercy on me.” The man laughed. “Who picked the music that’s playing right now?”

Newt pulled himself up as straight as he could. “I did.”

The man’s eyes widened. “Did you? Dude, you did an amazing job!”

“Thanks,” said Newt. He’d already known that his music choice was a good one, but to hear it from someone who wasn’t Alby or Minho was lovely. “Anyway,” he said, turning his attention to the shelves of jeans, “what kind of style of jeans do you like? And which colour”

“What do you recommend?”

Newt carefully took a dark blue pair off the shelf and handed it to the man. “How about these?”

The man took them. “Yeah, these seem good.” He paused. “Hang on,” he said, and he fished out the label to look at it closer. “These are my size.” He looked up at Newt. “How did you know my size?”

Newt smiled. “It was a guesstimate. I’ve gotten pretty good at that over the years.”

If there was also the extra detail that Newt had been checking the man out, then that didn’t need saying out loud.

“Do you still want a button down to go with them?” asked Newt.

The man nodded, so Newt took him to where they were in the store. With a little bit of coaxing, the man picked a green one with black dots.

The next step was for the man to try them on. Newt led him to the fitting room, and waited outside.

When the man stepped out, there were a good few seconds where Newt didn’t trust himself to speak.

“It’s bad?” said the man.

“No, it’s great!” said Newt. “Your girlfriend’s gonna love it!”

The man laughed. “She’s not my girlfriend, she’s my sister. I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Oh, sorry!” Newt brought a hand to his face to try and hide his blush. “I just assumed....”

“What, that I’m so hot that I’d have to have a girlfriend?”

Was that flirting? “Basically.”

The man laughed again. Perhaps it wasn’t flirting, then. “I was kidding, dude, but thanks! But no, the girl who sent me here is my sister, so it looking good is a relief because she might actually kill me if I go home with something that looks bad.”

“I totally understand what you mean,” said Newt, letting his hand drop back to his side. “I have a sister and if I tried to count the number of times she’s made me fear for my life I’d probably be counting for the rest of it.”

The man nodded. “But they’re angels to everyone else, right?”

“Exactly!”

“I’m so glad it’s not just me,” said the man, smiling. “I’m gonna go get changed, and then I’ll pay for this.”

With that, he disappeared back behind the curtain.

According to the email address the man gave when Newt asked him if he wanted his receipt emailed to him, his name was Thomas.

Newt wasn’t going to contact him. That would be a huge breach of data protection laws, and of privacy, and if Thomas had been interested in spending more time with him then surely he would’ve said so.

But Newt was free to imagine all he liked. For the brief amount of time that Thomas had been in the store, he and Newt had got along well. And Thomas being so hot definitely didn’t hurt.

“So,” said Alby the moment they closed the store for the day, “do you want to tell us why you’ve looked like you were in a daze all day?”

“It has not been _all_ day,” said Newt.

“He’s right Alby,” said Minho. Newt looked at him just in time to see the shit eating grin on his face as he added. “It’s only been since he personally showed this one customer around the store.”

“I was just doing my job!” said Newt. “He needed help!”

“I’ll bet he did,” said Minho.

Alby’s eyes were sparkling with interest. “What did he look like?”

“Brown hair, this tall,” Minho gestured to around Thomas’ height, “looked absolutely terrified until he lay his sights on our sweet little Newt here.”

“How did you even see any of this? You were on the other side of the shop!”

Minho flung his arm around Newt’s shoulders. “Ah Newt, You underestimate me. I am capable of great feats that you may only dream of.”

Newt rolled his eyes and shrugged Minho off of him.

“So you like him?” asked Alby.

“I think that much is obvious,” said Newt, glaring at Minho. Minho responded by putting on a show of false innocence.

“Are you gonna call him?”

“He didn’t leave a number, and I’m not about to use his email for that.” Newt shrugged. “He was cute, and nice, and I’ll be over it by tomorrow.”

Minho pretended to wipe away a tear. “Our little Newt has a crush, I feel like a proud parent.”

“Funny that,” said Newt. “I feel like a proud parent every time you manage to resist pulling the fire alarm out of boredom.”

Alby burst out laughing.

Minho scowled. “One time! I did that one time! Are you ever gonna let me live that down?”

Newt grinned. “I wasn’t planning on it, no.”

  
  


**Wednesday 11th December 2019**

Newt was in the middle of refolding a stack of sweaters somebody tapped on his shoulder.

Swallowing his annoyance at being touched by a stranger, he turned to see who it was and what they wanted. When he saw that it wasn’t a customer after all, but was Minho, he relaxed.

He turned back to the sweaters. “What is it?”

“Your boy is back.”

“What?”

“The guy from yesterday. Thomas? Was that his name?”

Newt stopped folding and faced Minho. “And?”

“He’s looking a bit lost. Maybe you should go and help him out?”

Newt sighed. There was a chance that Minho was fucking with him. But, when he gave it a moment’s thought, Newt would welcome a break from folding sweaters. A walk around the store sounded a lot nicer. Taking what Minho had said at face value didn’t actually inconvenience him in any way, so he might as well do it.

“Finish this up,” he said, gesturing to the pile behind him.

“Yes sir,” said Minho.

Leaving him to it, Newt walked towards the store entrance.

It turned out that Minho hadn’t been fucking with him. Sure enough, Thomas was standing a few paces from the door, and was indeed looking lost and unsure.

“Hey!” said Newt, catching Thomas’ eye and waving him over.

Thomas looked visibly relieved.

“Hi,” he said when he reached Newt. “Sorry, but I need to return what I bought yesterday and get something else.”

Thomas did look genuinely sorry. Newt had to suppress a laugh. People weren’t usually sorry when they returned things. If they had any emotions about the situation at all, it was either triumph or contempt (from getting their money back or from their dislike of the product, respectively), so Thomas being sorry that he needed to return his purchase was unusual.

“That’s not a problem. Just follow me.”

They reached the nearest cash register and Newt began the process of returning the items. It didn’t look like either the jeans or the button up shirt had been worn since leaving the store the day before.

“What was the issue with them? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“My sister said they weren’t good enough,” said Thomas. “There was also something about me thinking that I’m hilarious when I’m actually not.”

Newt frowned. “These are perfectly good in my opinion. Maybe she’s looking for something a bit smarter though?”

Thomas nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking.”

“How about this time we don’t get jeans?”

“You’ll help me?”

Newt let himself laugh this time. “Of course! I’m invested in this now.” He winked. “We’ll find you an outfit that your sister approves of if it kills me.”

Thomas breathed what looked to be a huge sigh of relief. “Thanks man, I’m really gonna owe you after this.”

“No you won’t,” said Newt.

“I will!” Thomas insisted. He paused, then said. “I’m Thomas, by the way. What’s yours?”

“I’m Newt.” Newt decided that saying that he’d already learned Thomas’ name from his email address would probably sound creepier than intended, so didn’t mention it.

“That’s a nice name,” said Thomas. “Is it like the little girl from Aliens?”

Among all the comments that people made whenever they learned his name, that was one of the less common ones. “Nah,” said Newt. “The girl in that film was nicknamed Newt due to reasons unknown.” He grinned. “My name’s Newt because my parents decided to call me Newton, and I’m not a masochist.”

“You’re not a masochist, so you called yourself ‘Newt’? Is that much better?”

“The choice was between weird and stuffy, or weird and cool.”

“Fair enough,” said Thomas. “Good movie though,”

“Oh, yeah,” said Newt. “Definitely.” He finished off the transaction. “Right,” he said. “First step, shall we find you some pants that aren’t jeans?”

“That sounds good to me!” said Thomas.

After a bit of discussion over what would be best, they settled on a dark grey pair of pants. To go with it, they picked out a green shirt, this time without any pattern on it.

As they were making these decisions, the two of them chatted about other things. Newt found out that Thomas was in the middle of rewatching Avatar: the Last Airbender, and Thomas was horrified to discover that Newt hadn’t ever watched any of it.

“It’s a classic!”

“Yeah,” said Newt. “And I grew up in England. Growing up I watched things like....” he trailed off, having managed to forget everything that he ever watched as a child in an instant, because of course his brain would betray him now.

“You were deprived,” said Thomas. “Avatar is the best show ever.”

“So I’ve heard.” Newt shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to check it out at some point.”

“You definitely should!”

The moment that Thomas was out of the door after having paid for his items, Alby went over to Newt. “Why didn’t you ask for his number?”

“Because it would be unprofessional.”

Alby rolled his eyes. “Loosen up a little? He just spent like an hour talking to you, and his attention didn’t wander even once. I think he likes you.”

Newt clamped down on the jolt of hope that Alby’s words gave him. “I think he just got sent back because his selection wasn’t up to scratch the first time.”

“Uh huh,” said Alby. “And that hour long session was just clothes talk?”

Newt knew he was turning red. “It doesn’t matter now,” he said. “He’s gone.”

Alby hummed, then said, “$10 says he’ll be back tomorrow.”

Newt raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yep.” Alby crossed his arms. “I’m telling you, I think he likes you.”

“You’re on,” said Newt.

Alby nodded, then walked away to get back to whatever it was that he was supposed to be doing.

Newt was sure that he’d win that bet.

Even if Alby was right that Thomas did like him, there was no way that he’d be back again the next day. He just wouldn’t be. As a general rule, people tended to not want to be seen as serial returners. There were exceptions to this, as there always were, but Thomas didn’t strike Newt as someone who would fall into that category. If Thomas did like Newt, which Newt thought wasn’t likely to be the case, then in all likelihood Thomas still wouldn’t be prepared to return something to the same store two days in a row.

Newt thought about what he was going to do with his extra $10.

There was a coffee shop nearby that was selling a gingerbread spice hot chocolate. He hadn’t had a chance to try it yet. He could treat himself to that.

  
  


**Thursday 12th December 2019**

As Newt watched Thomas walk into the store, he silently cursed Alby and whatever latent psychic abilities he had that had led to him being able to predict this.

He also mourned the loss of that $10, and kissed his reward hot chocolate goodbye.

However, when Thomas reached the counter that Newt was at, Newt found that he didn’t mind losing so much, if losing meant an extra chance to see and speak to Thomas.

Hmm, yeah. Okay. Newt had forgotten what having a crush was like. He needed to make sure that the joy that he felt over being near Thomas didn’t spill out of him, or it could get awkward fast.

Subtlety was key.

“Hey you,” he said. “Back again?”

Thomas nodded. “She gave me a bit more direction this time, so I kinda know what I’m looking for now.”

“Okay,” said Newt. “Shall we get the stuff from yesterday returned?”

Thomas put them on the counter. Again, like yesterday, both items were still pristine. It didn’t look like either of them had even been unfolded.

If this were anyone else, Newt might have been suspicious that they were running some sort of scam. But Thomas seemed so genuine, and also so genuinely apologetic to be back again (not that Newt minded, but Thomas wasn’t to know that), that Newt refused to even consider the possibility.

“What kind of direction?” asked Newt as they walked towards the men’s shirts.

“The shirt needs to be white and the pants need to be black.” 

“Huh,” said Newt. “That’s a very different request from simply not looking homeless.”

“I did say that,” said Thomas. “She wasn’t happy with me.”

Newt laughed. “Sisters are like that. You never want to point out when they’ve contradicted themselves.”

“Well,” said Thomas. Then he shook his head slightly. “Yeah,” he said. “I love her, but man is she difficult sometimes.”

“Don’t you worry Tommy,” said Newt. “We’ve got plenty of white shirts and black pants here, so you’ve got a wide selection, and there’s no way she’ll still be unhappy with you.” He smiled. “Third time lucky and all that.”

“Tommy?”

“What?”

“You just called me Tommy?”

Shit.

Newt let out an embarrassed laugh. “So I did. Sorry about that.”

“No,” said Thomas. “It’s okay. You can call me that if you like.”

Newt didn’t respond, not trusting himself to. Instead he opted to pick out a white shirt that he thought was likely to fit Thomas. “How about this one?”

“That looks good,” said Thomas.

“Does it?”

“I have no idea,” Thomas admitted. “It’s a shirt. They all look the same.”

Newt smiled. “That’s fine. I’ll spare you the lecture, but this is a good shirt.” He handed it over to him. “Let’s go find you some pants.”

After Thomas left, Newt went to find Alby.

At that moment, Alby was helping a customer with something, so Newt hung back and tried to make himself look busy so he wouldn’t get bothered by any other customers.

“So,” said a voice to his left.

“Shut up Minho,” said Newt.

Minho flung a hand to his chest. “I’m hurt, you haven’t let me say even one word and you’re already telling me to shut up?”

“Go on then,” said Newt, staring Minho down. “What were you gonna say.”

“I was gonna say that watching the two of you together is making me sick and that you should ask him out already.”

Newt nodded. “Shut up Minho.”

Minho laughed.

Alby chose that moment to appear next to them.

Newt didn’t make him wait or ask, he just wordlessly fished $10 out of his wallet and handed it over.

“Hey!” said Minho. “Why’s he getting special treatment?”

“It’s not special treatment,” said Newt. “He won a bet.”

Minho groaned. “A bet? Why wasn’t I informed there was a bet?”

“I said Thomas would be back today, Newt said that he wouldn’t be,” said Alby. “It wasn’t particularly complex.”

“Of course Thomas was gonna be back today,” said Minho. “Even I could’ve told you that.”

“But you didn’t,” said Alby. “I did. Which is why I’m now $10 richer.” He waved the bill in Minho’s face, who tried and failed to grab it.

“Boys, behave,” said Newt.

“But moooom,” whined Minho. “He’s being mean to me!”

Newt shook his head and walked away. “I’m not affiliated with either of you,” he called back over his shoulder.

“You love us really!” both Alby and Minho said in unison.

  
  


**Friday 13th December 2019**

Newt wasn’t the superstitious type, and he’d never had an issue with Friday 13ths.

Before getting to work that morning, he’d got a series of messages from his sister Sonya about how she wasn’t planning to leave her apartment all day in case something went wrong.

She just _couldn’t_ risk _anything_ happening to her _so close_ to Teresa’s wedding!

He’d also got a couple of messages from Harriet, Sonya’s girlfriend, commiserating with Newt about how he’d had to put up with Sonya’s superstitious nature for much longer than she had.

Sonya’s superstitions were harmless, so Newt and Harriet’s complaints about them had become a sort of lighthearted ritual between the two of them.

But Newt had never found Friday 13ths to be particularly unlucky. In fact, he’d always found that they tended to go well for him, rather than the other way around.

He knew that it was probably because he’d wake up on those mornings and decide that it was going to be a good day, simply to spite society telling him that it wasn’t going to be. And a lot about how you experience the day depends on your own attitude. If you decide you’re going to have a good day, then chances are that you’re going to have a good day.

Newt was having a good day.

Newt wasn’t letting _anything_ ruin his good day.

And when he saw Thomas walking into his store for the fourth day in a row, his heart sung, even despite the slight exasperation that Thomas’ sister was evidently still unhappy with his outfit selection.

But then he noticed the woman who was with him, and who was marching him in the direction of the counter.

It was Teresa.

She recognised him when they were a few paces away from him.

Newt wasn’t sure who he was supposed to greet first.

Teresa did that job for him.

“Hi Newt,” she said. “You’ve met my brother?”

Newt looked between the two of them for a few moments.

The man that he’d been crushing on for the past few days. And his friend from college’s younger brother. Were one and the same.

Great.

“Hi,” he said. “Gotta say, I had no idea you two were related.”

Thomas looked like he wanted nothing more than for the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

“Did he ever mention that he needed to get an outfit suitable for a wedding?” Teresa asked.

“No he did not,” said Newt.

Teresa glared at Thomas. Then she looked back at Newt and smiled. “You’ve sent him home with good outfits every time,” she said. “They just weren’t good for a wedding. And he has to be in black and white because everyone who’s due to sit at the brides’ table during the reception is gonna be wearing black and white.”

Newt nodded. “Yeah, Sonya mentioned that. She wouldn’t stop gushing about her dress when she got it. I haven’t seen it yet, but I thought that having the bridesmaids in black was an unusual idea.”

Teresa grinned. “It was Brenda’s idea! We figured that the guests could be as colourful as they like, but we’d all stand out more if we went in the complete opposite direction.”

“Has Minho told you about-”

“His neon-green shirt? Yes.” Her smile didn’t leave her face. “He had enough sense to ask us first.”

“Good that,” said Newt.

“Right,” said Teresa. “I trust you can look after him?” At Newt’s nod, she stepped backwards. “I’m gonna go, then. I have so much I need to do. Brenda’s shoes fell apart last night, and she doesn’t have a day off for ages.” She nudged Thomas’ side. “Which reminds me. You need shoes as well. Your sneakers aren’t suitable. I’m sure Newt will be able to help you.”

She walked out of the store.

“So,” said Newt. “You probably should’ve mentioned that you needed to dress for a wedding. Especially since you’re the brother of one of the brides.”

“How do you know Teresa?”

“I went to college with her,” said Newt. “And do you see those two guys over there?” He pointed towards Alby and Minho. “You know, the ones who are pretending not to look in this direction but are definitely trying to spy on us?”

Thomas turned to look, and Alby and Minho abruptly made themselves look busy and wandered off.

“They went to college with us as well. We’re all going to the wedding.” Newt took the clothes that Thomas had bought the day before and started to process the return. “The question really should be how come all of us don’t know you?”

“I didn’t go to college,” said Thomas. 

“How come?” asked Newt.

“I didn’t need to. I’d made some extra money through senior year by fixing people’s computers for them, getting rid of viruses, or whatever else they needed, and figured out how to build custom computers. Expanding all that into an actual business was a lot cheaper than college, and it’s worked out for me so far.”

“That’s really cool,” said Newt. He gestured to the store around him. “I lucked out with this place, its old owner was retiring, and I’d done some work experience here over a couple of summers, so he practically gifted it to me.”

“Nice!” Thomas smiled. “So I guess we were gonna meet each other soon anyway, even if I hadn’t decided to try buying an outfit from here?”

“Yeah, it seems so,” said Newt.

“Do you reckon it’s fate?”

“Are you asking me if I think that our meeting was predestined, and that the universe was doing all it could to make sure that we met each other somehow?”

“Yes,” said Thomas, attempting to keep his face serious, while still letting a smile slip through. “That’s exactly what I’m asking.”

Newt laughed. “You know what Tommy? Why not?”

Thomas’ smile grew, and Newt loved the sight.

“What I want to know,” said Newt, “is why you didn’t just say that it was for a wedding? We would’ve saved a lot of time!”

Thomas laughed nervously. “On Tuesday I just forgot to mention it.”

“And since then?”

“It’s gonna sound stupid.”

“Try me.”

“Okay, well, I was really enjoying spending time with you.” Thomas looked at the ground as he spoke. “And if Teresa kept sending me back to replace my outfit, then I’d get to keep seeing you.”

Newt sighed.

Fuck it.

He opened a drawer, grabbed a reel of receipt paper, tore off a piece, and scribbled his number onto it. He handed it to Thomas.

“I like spending time with you too,” he said. “And my idiot friends have been bugging me to give you my number since Tuesday.”

Thomas looked shocked.

He took the paper.

“Now,” said Newt. “Let’s get you a proper suit.”

  
  


**Tuesday 24th December 2019**

The wedding was beautiful.

The bodice of Teresa’s dress sparkled with what Sonya had informed Newt were tons of tiny hand-sewn beads, and the skirt was made up of waves and waves of lightweight fabric. There were silver slides in her hair and a smile on her face. She looked like a Disney princess made real.

Next to her was the woman she was marrying.

Brenda had opted for a suit in the deepest black that Newt had ever seen. Her hair had been brushed and clipped back with glittery black slides, and her gaze spent more time on Teresa than it did on anyone or anything else.

Newt couldn’t possibly be happier for them. They, along with most of their other friends, had met each other within the first few weeks of college, and they’d clicked immediately. Once they’d finally figured out what they were feeling, that had been it, and everybody had always known it. They were perfect for each other.

Newt wasn’t ashamed to admit that he cried during the ceremony. He was sure that he wasn’t the only one.

He ended up being one of the first people to reach the venue for the reception. He circled the tables until he found the place with his own name.

Gradually, more and more people started to arrive. When the bridal party arrived, all those present, including Newt, gave them a round of applause, to which Brenda laughed and Teresa gave a small curtsey, before they made their way over to the long table along the side of the room that they’d all be sat at. Sonya, as one of the bridesmaids, was one of them, and she sat directly to the left of Teresa. On Sonya’s left sat Harriet, and then a girl that Newt didn’t recognise. All of Teresa and Brenda’s other bridesmaids had been children, who were led to a separate table by a man that Newt assumed was Brenda’s father, based on the seat on that long table he took after doing so. Sitting on the far end of Teresa’s side of the table, on the other side of the girl who Newt didn’t know, was Thomas.

Thomas and Newt had spent the last week and a bit talking almost non-stop. Sometimes their conversations would just consist of sending each other links to things they thought the other might like (memes were truly a universal language that all could appreciate), and sometimes they would talk for hours about a number of shared interests that they’d found that they had.

One day, Newt mentioned the bet with Alby in passing, and Thomas had insisted on taking him out to get that hot chocolate that he hadn’t been able to have. The coffee shop had been toasty and warm, and Thomas’ company had been so comfortable, and Newt hoped that that evening had been burned into his brain forever.

Newt liked Thomas. He even felt like he could love him one day. The potential was there. And he was fairly sure that Thomas liked him back.

But neither of them had made any sort of move beyond the forced confession on that Friday. It was almost like they’d found a balance, some sort of pseudo-stability, and neither of them wanted to upset it.

They were standing on a house of cards, and hesitant as they were to knock it down, Newt knew that it was just a matter of time before gravity did the job for them.

Looking at Thomas now, Newt was blown away. The suit that they’d picked out for him looked spectacular. Thomas had managed to keep it looking neat and tidy, and was hiding any discomfort extremely well. Maybe he was too busy being happy for his sister to note the absence of his usual attire? Regardless, Newt found himself unable to decide whether he wanted to stare at Thomas in that suit all day or start the process of taking that bloody suit off.

He looked away.

“Hey, Newt!”

Newt looked up to see Ben had approached.

“Hi!” he said. “It feels like I haven’t seen you in ages.”

Ben pulled out the chair next to Newt and sat in it. A glance at the nametag there told Newt that Ben had been placed next to him for the meal. He wondered which of the bridal party had made that decision.

“We’ve got to meet up more than every few months,” said Ben. “I feel like there’s so much I wanted to tell you but I can’t remember any of it.”

“How’s wedding prep going with you guys?”

Gally, Ben’s fiancé, was Brenda’s best man, and so was sat directly to her right. She and him looked to be having a deep conversation that was holding all of their attention, and they were much too far away for Newt to be able to hear any of it.

Ben smiled. “We haven’t done much yet. Things are really busy at the moment. We were thinking that we’d start planning in earnest once we’d got fully settled into the new apartment, so it shouldn’t be too long now.”

“That’s great! How are you liking the new apartment? Brenda said that Gally thought it was cold?”

Ben laughed. “He’s so dramatic. We forgot to turn the heating on for the first two weeks of November, that’s why it was cold. It’s fine now.”

Newt nodded. “That makes sense actually.”

Ben gently elbowed Newt in the side. “Hey, don’t be rude.”

Newt held his hands up. “I’m innocent I swear!”

The two of them kept talking until the food arrived.

It was Christmas Eve, so the food was roast turkey and the traditional trimmings that came with a Christmas Dinner (the vegetarians in the room had a nut roast instead). Part of Newt knew that he should be bothered by the fact that he was going to be having two Christmas Dinners in a row, but he wasn’t bothered at all. He didn’t have proper roast dinners nearly as often as he would like, so he’d decided to see having one two days in a row as a treat rather than an issue.

As everyone was finishing off their final courses, the man who Newt has guessed was Brenda’s father stood. He introduced himself to the room as Jorge, Brenda’s father (Newt silently applauded his own skills of deduction), and gave a short speech about how happy he was for his daughter, and how excited he was to be gaining a new daughter in Teresa. As he sat down, Gally stood. He promptly let everybody know, or in the case of the people who knew her at the time promptly reminded everyone, about the time that Brenda got so nervous about asking Teresa out on a date that she literally made herself sick. He told it in great detail, and by the time he’d reached its end Brenda had buried her face in her arms, while Teresa put her arm around her, a sympathetic but amused look on her face. Once the laughter from that story had died down, Gally went on to talk about how much he loved Brenda and Teresa, and that he wished for them to have a wonderful life together. Then he sat.

And Thomas stood.

Newt could see that Thomas looked nervous, though he was obviously trying not to show it. In his hand he held a small piece of paper that seemed to be shaking slightly. He took a deep breath, and began to speak.

He talked about how when he first met Brenda, he’d been intimidated by her. She carried with her an aura of confidence that Thomas had never known before, and he’d been worried that his sweet older sister would get swept away by it. Then he’d seen the result of recent shopping date between the two. Brenda had apparently dragged them into Build-A-Bear and had made the fluffiest teddy bear that Thomas had ever seen in his life. The girls had planned to share custody of it, and Teresa had won the game of rock, paper scissors that decided where it would stay for the summer. After that, Thomas said, Brenda didn’t intimidate him anymore. And although his sister had ended up swept away by her, she’d done her own fair share of sweeping right back.

He talked a little more about how he was sure they’d have a long and happy life together before sitting down.

The whole room applauded.

The moment that people other than the newly married couple started to trickle onto the dancefloor, Gally appeared at the table and whisked Ben away. Newt stayed sat in his seat as he watched them twirl and laugh and be happy with one another.

Somebody tapped him on the shoulder. The person then sat in Ben’s vacated seat, revealing themself to be Minho.

“You up for dancing?” he said.

Newt shook his head and rubbed his leg. “Maybe when something slower comes on. I don’t want to hurt myself.”

“Fair,” said Minho. “Where’s Thomas?”

Newt looked over to where Thomas had been sitting. He wasn’t there anymore.

“How should I know?”

Minho grinned. “Because you’re crazy for him? And always seem to know everything?”

“I do not know everything.”

“Yeah but you’re smart enough that you make people think that you know everything, and that’s why people listen to you.”

“Maybe they listen to me because they can tell that I actually have common sense.”

“Are you saying that I don’t?”

“Maybe.”

“You wound me Newt, I’ve never felt so betrayed in all my life!”

Newt laughed, and Minho joined in.

“He’s probably just gone to the loo,” said Newt after their laughter had died down.

“Who?”

“Thomas.”

“Oh right. Yeah, you’re probably right.” Minho gently nudged Newt with his elbow. “Are you gonna dance with him?”

“I told you, I don’t want to risk-”

“Yeah yeah so you’re not gonna do anything too energetic. But you could slow dance with him. That’s an option.”

Newt would be lying if he said that he hadn’t thought of doing that, of slow dancing with Thomas at the wedding. He’d also be lying if he said that he hadn’t thought about it a lot more than what was probably healthy. If he tried to say that the thought hadn’t entered his mind shortly after Thomas left the store that last time, when his relation to Teresa had been revealed and Newt knew that he would also be at the wedding, then that would be a lie too.

But he didn’t need to say anything to Minho. Minho knew him well enough that he could read the expression on Newt’s face.

Minho patted Newt on the back, winked, and stood.

“I’d better yeet,” he said. “We wouldn’t want your eligible bachelor getting scared off.”

Newt groaned. “Please never never use yeet as a verb in casual conversation again.”

Minho shot finger guns at Newt, and disappeared into the crowd.

A couple of minutes passed where Newt was left in peace. Nobody disturbed him, or tried to talk to him, or tried to rope him into dancing. He was able to just watch the room. To watch people dancing and having fun while the children weaved their way among their legs. To watch people work their way around the room, probably catching up with people that they hadn’t seen in a long time.

Then somebody sat in the chair next to him.

“Hi,” said Thomas.

“Hey,” said Newt.

“Did you want to dance?” asked Thomas. “With me, I mean.”

“I have an old injury on my leg that’s been acting up lately, so I don’t want to risk doing anything to it. I’d love to dance with you. It’s just probably not the greatest idea.”

“That sucks,” said Thomas. “What happened?”

“I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Okay,” said Thomas. “Is it okay if I sit with you for a bit?”

“Of course!” Newt debated whether or not to take Thomas’ hand, but decided against it. “Your speech was really good.”

“You think so?”

“Yes! I could tell that you were nervous, but you really didn’t need to be. It was perfect.”

“Perfect?”

“Yeah. You got the mixture of roasting and affection just right.”

“That’s a relief,” said Thomas. “I was kinda worried that I’d been too mean.”

“Nothing about that Build-A-Bear story was mean, you’re good.”

“Thanks,” said Thomas, a smile on his face. Then, he said, “You were sat next to Gally’s boyfriend, right?”

“Gally’s fiancé, yes.”

“Oh! I didn’t know they were engaged!”

“They are.”

“I haven’t really spoken to him much,” said Thomas. “The fiancé, I mean. I’ve spoken to Gally plenty.” He laughed, rubbing the back of his head. “What’s he like?”

“Ben’s lovely,” said Newt. “He’s possibly one of the kindest people I know. He’s definitely worth getting to know better if you get the chance.”

“Gotcha,” said Thomas. “I shall try to befriend Ben. Plus I want to score an invite to their wedding.”

Newt laughed. “Got a taste for it, have you?”

“I wouldn’t put it that way,” said Thomas. “It’s just that getting to go to a wedding as just an attendee, who shows up and watches and eats the food and doesn’t have to do any of the organising sounds like a good time.”

Newt noticed Minho trying to catch his eye from across the room. When eye contact was established, Minho shot Newt a thumbs up. Next to Minho was Alby, and as far as Newt could tell, Alby was shaking his head and saying something to Minho. Newt guessed that it was something along the lines of _‘That’s not helpful, cut it out.’_

Thomas followed Newt’s gaze. “That’s Alby and Minho, right?”

“Yep,” said Newt. “They mean well, but...”

“I completely get it,” said Thomas. “During the car ride here, Teresa gave me a sort of pep talk that was half actual pep talk and half threats of what she’d do to me if I didn’t ‘get my act together’.” He made air quotes as he spoke.

“About the speech?” Newt knew that it was a stupid question, but even though he was fairly sure that Thomas did indeed like him back, he wasn’t 100% certain. He _was_ 100% certain that his uncertainty was more due to his own insecurity rather than any actual doubt. The whole store saga, and their time spent chatting since then, should have been more than enough evidence that Newt wasn’t alone in his attraction.

“No,” said Thomas. “She knew that that was fine. It was about...” Thomas coughed. “It was about something else.”

It was about him. Newt knew that it was about him. His last shreds of doubt dissolved, and he was finally sure.

“Thomas,” he said, “I-”

The music changed. The upbeat, pop song that had just been playing faded away into something much slower. People on the dancefloor started to either couple up or walk away back towards the seating area.

“Can you dance to this?” asked Thomas.

Newt nodded. “This would be fine.”

Thomas stood. He held out a hand to Newt.

“Then may I have this dance?”

Newt took Thomas’ hand.

“Yes,” he said as he stood. “Yes you may.”

They were far from alone on the dancefloor. There were plenty of other couples there, and a few children who hadn’t understood that the music had changed and so were still jumping up and down as if their lives depended on it. But as far as Newt was concerned, the world may as well have shrunk down so as to only include him and Thomas. The two of them, standing in each other’s arms, swaying along to the music, were all that mattered.

“How are you spending tomorrow?” Newt said quietly into his ear.

“I was gonna travel back to my parents’,” Thomas replied. “It’ll be our first year without Teresa, which will be weird, but she and Brenda wanted to spend the day with it just being them. What about you?”

“I’m going round Sonya and Harriet’s. We’ll facetime our parents at some point, as well. It’s a pretty standard Christmas for us this year.”

“Any chance I could convince you to spend it with me instead?”

Newt laughed softly. “Not this time. I can’t ditch my family at such short notice. But if you play your cards right, you could definitely have me next year.”

He felt Thomas’ arms tighten around him. “I’d like that,” he said.

“So would I.”

“If I can’t spend tomorrow with you,” said Thomas, “then how about tonight?”

Newt stilled. Thomas followed suit and moved back just far enough that he and Newt could look at each other.

Newt smiled. 

“Shall we get out of here then?” he said.

Thomas slid his hand down Newt’s arm and took his hand.

“Yes.”


End file.
